Friday, April 18, 2014

Chinese Graves in The White Hills Cemetery, Bendigo,
Victoria by Dr Kok Hu Jin (Chinese Cemeteries in Australia Volume 5). Paperback book published by Golden Dragon
Museum Bendigo (no date, year of the monkey), 191 pages with a few black and
white maps, Chinese inscriptions (throughout) and one tipped in black and white
photograph.

Bendigo was a gold rush boomtown. A bit like Clunes, where I live, except a lot
bigger. As with most of the gold rush
towns here in Australia and in many other places around the world, the
population swelled to vast numbers of enthusiastic diggers seeking their fortune in the 1800s. The Chinese formed a noticeable part of this
group and were often treated quite badly by the Europeans who tended to openly
and actively discriminate against their fellow miners.

“Gold brought great
wealth but also new social tensions. Multiethnic migrants came to New South
Wales in large numbers for the first time. Competition on the goldfields,
particularly resentment among white miners towards the successes of Chinese
miners, led to tensions between groups and eventually a series of significant
protests and riots, including the Buckland Riot in 1857 and the Lambing Flat
Riots between 1860 and 1861.” Wikipedia

Even here in Clunes there was a riot of varying ferocity depending on who’s account you
read. There is currently little evidence
that the Chinese were ever here with only one Chinese gravestone still present
in the graveyard and very little emphasis on any Chinese presence within the
town or the town museum*.

Bendigo on the other hand has a long and proud Chinese
history, which is actively and enthusiastically celebrated in their Golden Dragon Museum. At a guess the Chinese presence was probably greater in
Bendigo than here in Clunes or Ballarat and maybe this book is a great example
of that lasting presence in what must have once been a difficult place to be
Chinese.

“Chinese Cemeteries in Australia” is a fairly obscure
subject and the content of this book really does just look at the gravestones and then
literally translate and explain what the translation of the text means. …To be honest, it’s a little dull, unless of
course your heritage is Bendigo Chinese or you are wanting to get some sort of
idea re the Chinese population of Bendigo in years gone by. But it is a title that is obscure enough for
a bookseller like me to get excited about and rare enough for me to want to
write about it here.

About Me

Huc & Gabet: Books of interest is a secondhand bookseller based in Clunes (Booktown), Victoria, Australia. These ramblings are intended as amusement and are based on the informed and ill informed (more of the ill informed, than the informed) opinions of the author. Anyone interested in purchasing books from me can check out my website. There is a link above.